ROBERTS: Women show leadership in Senate

4:53 PM,
Oct. 20, 2013

Written by

cokie and steve roberts

The headline in the Washington Post read, "Moderates flex muscle." Below that were pictures of 12 senators, six from each party, who were helping to forge a bipartisan compromise that would reopen the government and pay its bills. But the story never mentioned a key fact: Five of the 12 are women, three Republicans and two Democrats.

That's no accident. The 20 female members of the Senate might be the last outpost of civility and sanity left on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who organized the group, told the New York Times: "I don't think it's a coincidence that women were ...